Attending a High End Seminar with your Staff

Recently, Heather, Kerice and I were fortunate enough to attend a wonderful seminar given by Nancy Han and Tomoko Hirokawa. This is one of a series of terrier workshops  being held, and the one I’m going to discuss in the article today was “The Soft Coated Wheaten Terrier”.  The seminar took place at Nancy’s shop on a Sunday. It was from 8:30 am to 5 pm.
The morning began with continental breakfast, and we received our own beautifully designed notebooks that we can use for years and years to come.
After everyone settled in, we started with a discussion forum on the new licensing laws.  We were able to discuss the topic and come up with some ideas and opinions about how to handle the changes taking place in our industry.  I was very thankful to have the opportunity to engage in this discussion with other professionals and hear what their opinions are.
Then, we got into the actual grooming part of the seminar.  Nancy went into detail about the Wheaton Terrier standard, it's purpose, the difference in coat types and ideal conformation.  The dogs she they used for the demonstrations were beautiful examples of the breed, and all very well behaved on the table (don't we wish all our dogs were that way!).


Nancy is gracious and approachable, and very willing to help people and share her knowledge.  Tomoko is wonderful to watch. Her style is queit and efficient with minimal movement.


After a fantastic homemade vegetarian lunch (I'm still waiting for that chili recipe!), we launched into a discussion and demonstration of some more detailed aspects of grooming.  Nancy and Tomoko demonstrated their abilities with patterns, textures of coats, and showed us how to work with each of the various types.


Several Wheaten Terrier breeders were in the audience, which meant we had an opportunity to network with potential future clients.
In addition, we went over the muscle structure and bone structure of dogs, which helped us to better understand how grooming three dimensionally can improve our overall look.


We also talked about some of the behavior issues we face with pets in the shop, and ways to handle situations that come up to keep our animals and staff safe.


I want to re-emphasize how fantastic this workshop was designed, and how well organized it was.  Nancy and her staff's hospitality, beautiful shop, grooming skill level, and the quality of dogs was amazing to witness and an incredible learning experience.  I highly recommend attending a workshop such as this.  Here are some additional resources to contact to find a workshop:
Check with the NDGAA , IPG or ISCC  for groomers near you who put on seminars. Trade shows also have a variety of seminars to choose from.